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Battery charge Indicator

Dear All

My Civic HCH11 has been trundling along achieving 4.1 l/100 (57mpg). I have noticed that the battery indicator will not drop below 4 bars. When 4 bars are reached all EV stops and the car forces a recharge. (I try and EV as often as I can) the recharge occurs quite quickly suggesting that there is a 'memory' in the battery

In my Insight this portion of the display contains the bulk of the charge because the display is weighted the bars are the bottom represent more charge than the ones at the top force recharge seems to never occur.

I have spoken to the local Honda dealer who have said that this is ‘normal’ and they will only look at the car if it fails to start otherwise they will charge me for the pleasure – not warrantee work

Has any one else managed to fully discharge their battery, is this normal?

The target optimal State of Charge for the HCH-2 is 50-80%. As soon as the SoC falls to 4 bars then the system will regen ASAP to restore the SoC to its target level.

This behavior is by design and it is one of the measures designed to enhance the battery life. The lower the amplitudes of SoC changes the longer the battery's life expectancy. The battery management algorithms on the Insight where far less aggressive than those now present on the HCH-II and so far there have been far more battery replacements on the Insight than what Honda had expected.

Once in a while, the SoC will fall to 1 or two bars but those rare occasions are also managed and are designed to reduce the "memory effect". You'll see such occasions also during extremely hot days when the AC is operating on Auto.

Finally, riding the EV on a frequent basis is not the most optimal thing to do for many of us. This also applies to those of us who also own a Prius II. Not only it does not always yield the best FE results because prolonged Regens erode the forward momentum longer... but also hitting the pack will notch the battery's life expectancy in the long run. Staying off the pack is often the wiser approach.

Instead, many of us will use EV only to extend the glides strategically so that we can travel the longest distances with no fuel.

Thanks for the response. I had understood that the battery indicator actually only represented the 50-80% meaning that the indicator represents the actual charge available. EG the bottom point on the display is 50% full the top point of the display is 80% full. I guess the confusion is that the charge shows 'full' but never empty. The most accurate would be either to never show full or empty, or as above full and empty

Regardless I won't push it with Honda

And yes electric mode (EM) would be better description than electric vehicle (EV)

Thanks for the responses, guys. I have the 2006 Honda Civic Service Manual. Just flipping through the Fuel and Emissions section, for example, it is rare to find a sentence without a 2~3 or 4 letter acronym. I begin to wonder, giving it another decade, if it will be possible to read these things.

One one page I found PCM, PGM-FI, HDS, CKP, TP, VIN (it doesn't appear to be Vehicle Identification Number in this context), DTC, ETCS and APP. For me this thing is mainly a sleep aid, I few minutes browsing around bedtime and I start nodding off Still, an acronym index at the back of the manual might be handy for the mechanics for whom this thing is bread and butter.